In addition to suppressing an audit that showed his friend and fellow Republican, Dick Cathcart’s involvement in possibly illegal procurement activity at DSU, disgraced Delaware Auditor Tom Wagner removed a forensic accountant from the case who was investigating “kickbacks” involved in the $1.5 million procurement scheme. By doing so, Wagner derailed a criminal investigation into DSU’s procurement practices.
The NJ’s Wade McCullum repots:
The Attorney General’s Office executed several subpoenas at the request of auditors and opened an investigation in early 2010, said Timothy P. Mullaney Sr., the attorney general’s chief of staff. But the auditor’s office never reported back, Mullaney said.
Hicks blamed Wagner for not getting to the bottom of the alleged kickbacks. Hicks said he split the kickback allegations into a separate investigation led by the office’s forensic accountant. He said Wagner pulled the accountant off the investigation.
“I decided there was no way I was going to get this report issued with the kickback allegation in there,” Hicks said. “The procurement allegation was more straightforward, and I knew DSU would admit it had done wrong. I decided, ‘Let’s not let the kickback allegation blow up the rest of the report.’ I knew that would be the more challenging one politically.”
Wagner asserts that the “kickbacks” audit was not quashed. Whether or not Wagner or Hicks’ version is correct, the fact remains that, having opened a criminal investigation, the AG’s waited in vain for Wagner to provide them with a forensic audit that never materialized.
“The Attorney General’s Office assigned a case number and opened an preliminary investigation awaiting the results of the DSU audit, Mullaney said.
“We anticipated a criminal investigation,” he said. “That’s based on the representations made to us from the auditor’s office.”